Dylan Bolio (Epiphany)
THEME: Dylan Elisha Bolio is a character in Epiphany. The virtual opposite of his reclusive younger brother Gray, Dylan is outwardly expressive and rambunctious. He is known for his oftentimes reckless behavior. For a boy raised in the Christian faith, Dylan is a strange and rare case – he has his own beliefs and interpretations of the Bible that make him stand out among others. He doesn't necessarily go with the flow of what the church says. He has his own ideas that can be quite differential in comparison to his peers. His beliefs are based on his own skepticism and way of thinking being applied to what he reads. He begins to have doubts about the truth of God's word as the world around him crumbles, and he sees very little redeemable qualities in the situations he finds himself in. Personality Dylan is very much an attention seeker. He loves and craves the spotlight and attention of others. He will often act out and be childish in order to look funny for an early impression. A lot of people would be intrigued by his radical and almost outlandish behavior because they want to know why he is the way he is, but others may be turned off because he can be a bit obnoxious. Dylan likes to make himself known to people. He hopes that making an impression on a stranger will quickly make them not a stranger anymore. Dylan is not very outwardly emotional, and claims to scare himself with how little he actually does feel. His confidence is healthy and never too arrogant, though he can often get caught up in other people’s faults and not face his own problems. One of his more prevalent emotions is anger, and will oftentimes explode with it when tested. Dylan’s biggest fears revolve around embarrassment and not being seen as worthy to others around him. He tries to prove himself often and leave a good first impression on people, but oftentimes he puts himself out there too much, to the point where he pushes people away. He just wants to make the people around him happy. He is also one who is known to over-think situations. Although he has plenty of thoughts in his head, his inability to put them into words makes him easily frustrated thanks to poor communication skills. Dylan will try to spell out what he means in words, but fail to get his point across correctly; he is easily misinterpreted because he isn't quite sure how he wants to spit out what he has to say. History Pre-series Dylan grew up at Christ Community Church in Monroeville, Pennsylvania. People have high expectations of him around the church, though he doesn't like that very much. His father Anthony, a former Navy SEAL, taught the family self-defense techniques. Dylan excelled in hand-to-hand combat and swordfighting, though he was a miserable shot with any firearm. Their father went on a trip for his job a month prior to the plague. Immediately following the collapse of the government and the plague's explosion through the States, Dylan, Gray, and their mother Enid took refuge at the church. A week before the events of Book One, Dylan was approached by the church's youth pastor Liz Burke with the proposition of helping her lead the church's youth group. Book One: Revelation Dylan was taking a nap and was awakened from his slumber by Gray, who was told by Pastor Liz to fetch him for a conversation. Dylan lumbered down to Pastor Liz's office and had a talk with her. She asked him to pray on her request, and shrugged off his concern about being able to handle so many personalities. It is a learning process, but she is convinced that Dylan is the right young man to lead this group. Dylan met with Liz again, accepting her offer to lead the youth group. Liz wanted to test Dylan's discomfort with praying for people out loud, and took him to the sickly boy Dominic's bedside. Despite feeling awkward about it, he led the prayer over Dominic. Gray came into the infirmary and asked Dylan to come with him, on behest of the church's head pastor, Robin. He and Gray entered Robin's office, where their mother Enid was crying. Dylan was not surprised by this; their mother had cried often during these past two weeks. It was harsh to think, but he knew this was the truth and had accepted that he would often see her crying from now on. Upon seeing the video message left on their mother's laptop from their father, Dylan was left in shock and a state of fear. Their father had discovered the virus, and it came from a space meteorite. He was trapped in London, studying it with scientists. As his mother and brother gripped each other and cried together, he did not want to break the solitude strength he was holding up. He kept himself held together, until he recalled a memory where his mother and father had an argument, and he remained distant from embracing his mother in the aftermath. He broke and joined their hug. That night, while drifting to sleep, he noticed Gray sneaking away and followed him to the infirmary, where he learned that his younger brother was planning to sneak the sickly Dominic to an outside location because he feared what would become of him now that the pastors knew what would happen to any infected individuals. Dylan talked Gray out of his naive plan, and they were encountered by the pastors as they walked through the hallway to pray over Dominic in the infirmary. They headed back to bed. The next day, it was announced that Dominic had passed away overnight. Dylan participated in a prayer service that morning and spent the entire time having suspicions of the involvement of both head pastors. Dylan could not find Gray following the service,. He was reminded of Gray's strange habit of crying on the bathroom tile floor when he was sick or upset because the coolness comforted him, so he headed to the nearest bathroom to check for him. Their mother Enid stopped Dylan in the hallway, telling him that she packed all of their stuff and they need to leave immediately. Dylan was confused, but respected and listened to his mother in searching for Gray. He went into the bathroom and found Gray in the stall. Gray wrote one of his daily "definition poems", meaning he flipped to a random page in the dictionary and chose the third word on the page to write a freestyle poem about. The word he ended up on was 'murder', causing him to freak out. He wrote the poem and poured his feelings onto paper. Dylan walked in and asked why Gray was crying, looking over the poem and reassuring his brother that he wasn't crazy or sinful for having these feelings. Gray acknowledged that he was embarrassed of having this daily routine, in fear of Dylan scrutinizing him for it, but he was truly understanding toward his younger brother and his situation. The brothers hugged, with Dylan telling Gray to leave the bathroom, but he did not acknowledge that their mother was planning on having them leave the church. Appearances Theme Trivia *As the older brother, Dylan can be seen as the equivalent to Corey Bolio from Eden Rising. *Dylan's middle name, Elisha, means "God is salvation". Like his brother, his middle name is Biblical. *Dylan appears as a default racer in UFSW Kart 2: Dual Rivals. His default partner is Duane Bowe from Stranded, with their moniker being "got some growing up to do". Category:Epiphany Characters Category:Epiphany Category:Characters Category:Remixed Eden Rising Characters Category:Protagonists